La Marzocco presents the Jay coffee grinder with the blind burr

FLORENCE, Italy – Building on a rich history of innovation and craftsmanship, La Marzocco introduced the Jay coffee grinder at its October Out-of-the-Box event in Milan. Jay combines La Marzocco’s decades of espresso heritage with the same spirit of innovation that has shaped all La Marzocco products. Through meticulous engineering and design, Jay is robust and consistent, with an intuitive user interface.

As the specialty coffee community gathers its first impressions of Jay, there have naturally been questions about the new features and the design philosophy that drove its development.

La Marzocco shares a Q&A, where the team behind the Jay will help unpack the stories behind how and why they created the technology and answer questions about the new features.

Why choose flat burrs for the Jay?

As La Marzocco expands its grinder lineup, the team set a goal to examine opportunities to improve upon traditional coffee grinders, creating a grinder that is efficient, easy to clean, simple to use, and designed to last.

The team found that their in-house-designed blind, flat burrs effectively met these needs while also helping maintain affordability and expand the product range beyond the conical burrs used in the Pico and Swan grinders.

How much coffee retention does the Jay have?

Jay was designed with minimal retention in mind. The grinder retains less than 2 grams of coffee, minimizing the amount of purging required when making grind adjustments to reduce waste and ensure that the grinder is easy to dial in.

How do I clean the Jay grinder?

One of the best features of Jay is the ease of cleaning. Simply purge any remaining coffee through and remove the self-closing hopper. The magnetic burr holder can then be easily detached, giving you full access to clean the grinding chamber and both burrs using a brush or vacuum.

Reassemble in reverse order, and the upper burr will magnetically snap into place, maintaining your previous grind setting and allowing you to pick up right where you left off. This will enable you to clean the grinder more quickly than ever before.

How can I be sure that the upper burr doesn’t move while grinding?

The magnetic attachment of the burr was meticulously designed and tested to provide a robust connection, and the rare-earth magnets used in its construction have been rigorously proven in our labs to generate sufficient force for grinding the densest of lightly roasted coffees.

In addition to a strong holding force, the upper burr holder mounts directly to the motor assembly, which is isolated from the frame using anti-vibration mounts. This ensures that both burrs are perfectly mated together when grinding, while also keeping the grinder quiet.

There is also a switch that stops the motor immediately when the burrs separate. This is primarily a safety feature, but it also helps to protect the burrs. If a stone makes its way into the grinding chamber, the grinder will instantly stop the motor when it causes the burrs to separate, reducing the risk of damaging the burrs due to an obstruction.

How does grind-by-weight work?

Every Jay is grind-by-weight compatible when paired with a La Marzocco Connected Scale. Simply connect the Jay using the La Marzocco app, create a coffee station, and pair the scale.

The connected scale kit includes a portafilter fork that snaps magnetically into place on the scale.

This allows the scale to weigh the coffee as it is ground, while the scale and grinder communicate directly to enhance the precision and consistency of your coffee dose. If you need to charge the scale, Jay automatically continues right where you left off, using the time of your last grind-by-weight dose.

Can I still change the grind-by-weight dose using the grinder’s buttons?

Absolutely. Jay was designed to be easy to use and intuitive to program. Press and hold the dose button that you would like to change, and symbols will illuminate to guide you through the process of increasing or decreasing the grind-by-weight dose. You can also change both doses, access settings, and view statistics through the La Marzocco app.

What are blind burrs? Is this the first La Marzocco grinder to feature them?

As the company expanded their new grinder lineup to include flat burrs, the engineering team spent two years researching how to create burrs that were more efficient and consistent, as well as how to achieve a system that would perfectly align the two burrs.

The blind burr design is a result of those two goals, eliminating mounting screw holes in the cutting face of the burr while integrating a burr-alignment system. This is indeed the first La Marzocco grinder to feature them.

What materials are the grinders made from?

The engineering team has carefully selected high-quality materials to ensure that the grinder is both robust and hygienic, ensuring it will last a lifetime. Jay is built on a painted aluminum frame, featuring stainless steel panels that allow technicians easy access to internal components.

Coffee contact is limited to stainless steel, which was used on every surface of the grinding chamber. The burrs themselves are made of a best-in-class, high-hardness steel for longevity.

What is the expected life of Jay’s burrs?

The 68mm burrs are crafted from a carefully selected, high-hardness steel for longevity. The burrs should last at least 1,000 kg, depending on the roasting profile and coffee density, while maintaining the initial productivity and granulometry.

What is the burr alignment system, and how does it work?

Jay was designed with a unique feature to ensure burr alignment. In the patented design, the upper stationary burr has a spherical mounting face as opposed to a flat one. This ball joint allows the upper burr to self-align during burr replacement by leaving the mounting screws slightly loose and then bringing the burrs together until they touch.

Once touching, the burrs will be perfectly parallel to each other, and then the mounting screws can be tightened, ensuring absolute alignment and improving the quality of the grind.

How difficult is it to change the burrs?

The burrs are easily replaceable for any qualified technician. Thanks to the magnetic mounting and burr alignment system, they are both easy to access and simple to calibrate. For more detailed information for technicians, feel free to contact your local La Marzocco representative.

Are there other burrs available for the grinder?

Jay uses burrs designed by La Marzocco. Because it was designed with features like the blind mounting system for increased cutting surface and the burr alignment system, it isn’t compatible with other third-party burrs.

Can I grind filter coffee with Jay?

Jay has been designed to grind consistent coffee for espresso and isn’t optimal for filter coffee.

Are custom colors available?

Jay is currently available from the La Marzocco factory only in the black and stainless-steel colorway seen in the product photos.

For more info click here.